Gee, Thanks, Verizon!

I have 7 domains from which I can receive email, not including my Gmail and MSN accounts. All mail for my domains funnel down to a few POP3 accounts, which I check with Small Business Server. My SBS is configured to send all SMTP outbound through Verizon, my DSL provider. It was difficult for me to pin down exactly when it happened, but some time recently, I lost the ability to send SMTP from home. I didn't know the exact date because I mostly use Gmail for outbound mail now, and I've been too busy lately to really hunt down the problem.

Well, today, I set aside some time to investigate, and found this. It turns out Verizon decided to implement a breaking change on their SMTP servers that means I can't use SBS to send email anymore. Thanks, guys! I'm glad I'm giving you money!

As I mentioned before, I hate Comcast, which is what caused me to switch to Verizon in the first place. Now I hate Verizon too. (Yes, I'm quick to hate companies with poor customer service. Sue me.) I'm going to start hunting for a company that can just deliver reasonably priced high speed internet to my door, then leave me the hell alone. No firewall, spam blocking, no frills. I can take care of all that stuff. I just need a public IP, and a customer service department that knows why the word "service" is in their department's name. Anyone have any recommendations for a company that services Dallas?